JUDGE RULES ABC NEWS VIOLATED LAW

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A judge here has ruled that the undercover methods ABC News used to compile a damaging story about allegedly unsanitary practices at a Food Lion store violated North Carolina's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.The Salisbury, N.C.-based chain must decide by July 19 whether to seek damages based on that ruling or on a previous one that found ABC guilty of fraud.The ruling,

GREENSBORO, N.C. -- A judge here has ruled that the undercover methods ABC News used to compile a damaging story about allegedly unsanitary practices at a Food Lion store violated North Carolina's Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The Salisbury, N.C.-based chain must decide by July 19 whether to seek damages based on that ruling or on a previous one that found ABC guilty of fraud.

The ruling, handed down last Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Tilley, gives